Double National Teaching Fellow success

Prestigious National Teaching Fellowships in recognition of excellence in learning and teaching have been awarded to two of our lecturers.

The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme from the Higher Education Academy awards the fellowships – only 50 fellowships have been awarded this year to academics from universities in England and Northern Ireland.

The two recipients at the University are Dr Briony Oates, a Reader in Information Systems in the School of Computing, and Paul van Schaik, a Professor in Psychology in the School of Social Sciences & Law. Seven Fellowships have now been awarded to lecturing staff from the University.

Briony Oates first achieved a BA (Hons) German from the University of Newcastle, followed by a postgraduate diploma in Careers Guidance from Newcastle Polytechnic. Briony then moved into Human Resource Management with a national brewery. Following this, she enrolled at the then Teesside Polytechnic in 1987 on a Master of Science Degree in Information Technology (IT), where she gained a distinction. Briony went on to join the lecturing staff.

She said: ‘I've always been concerned about the use of IT by people and organisations. I'm interested in how IT can be used to make people's lives better and organisations more effective. Lecturing gives me the opportunity to keep on learning new things and help other people to learn about them.’

During her career Briony became frustrated by the lack of any textbook on research methods for computing students, so wrote her own. Published in 2006, her book 'Researching Information Systems and Computing' has already been adopted at more than 30 universities in the UK, USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Briony has given guest lectures to staff and students in the UK and abroad, and last year was invited to join a multi-national group working on teaching research methods to computing students. The group's digital library will go live this summer.

The Fellowship awards £10,000, which Briony will use to continue her exploration of research methods in computing. She added: ‘I'm very pleased with this Fellowship. It rewards my work in encouraging others to recognise that we are all researchers, even if they don’t initially realise it.’

Dr Derek Simpson, Dean of the School of Computing, said: ‘The whole School is extremely delighted and proud of Briony’s success and it is very well merited. This continues a tradition of National Teaching Fellows (NTF) within the School. Briony’s is now the fourth NTF awarded to the School and hopefully not the last. The School has always been proud of its excellence in teaching and it is very pleasing that this award, along with other external awards, confirms our view.’

The second of this year’s Teesside Teaching Fellowships has been awarded to Professor Paul van Schaik, a teacher of psychological research methods and the psychology of Human-Computer Interaction in the University’s School of Social Sciences & Law. Paul is originally from Ede in the central Netherlands. He achieved his first Masters degree in Applied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Utrecht, followed by a PhD from the University of Twente. Paul moved to the UK in 1994, first as a senior research officer at the University of Hertfordshire and then joined Teesside in 1997.

One of Paul’s main research interests is how people use computers, particularly the psychological aspects of this process. Paul said: ‘When I first came to Teesside I started research into how people use web site pages, looking at the usability of systems and the best way of presenting information. People were initially more influenced in their overall judgement by the aesthetic value of web pages but then once they had used the web site their overall judgement was more influenced by its usability.’

Paul has developed a suite of highly interactive computer-based psychological experiments to aid students’ learning of experimental methods in psychology, research design and data analysis. He also designed computer-based (electronic performance support) systems to help students complete their revision of research methods and to make better use of library resources.

Paul added: ‘The Fellowship is recognition of the work I’ve been doing for the last ten years at Teesside in the human use of computers and its funding will allow me to carry this work forward. The University has given me the opportunities to progress in my career, I came here as a senior lecturer and went on to Reader and then Professor. The students are committed and actually see the opportunities learning presents to them.’

Liz Barnes, Dean of the School of Social Sciences & Law, said: ‘This award demonstrates the contribution that Paul has made to teaching in Psychology and how a Professor has applied his research to inform and enhance his teaching and the student experience. The School is proud of this national recognition of the excellence of its academic staff and this reflects the feedback of our students in the National Student Survey. I personally wish to congratulate Paul on this significant and well deserved achievement in his academic career.’

Professor Graham Henderson, University Vice-Chancellor added: ‘We pride ourselves at the University on our support for learning and teaching. I am delighted to see further evidence of the quality of that support in this excellent recognition of two outstanding colleagues.’

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